Mercaptans, which are also known as thiols, are organic compounds used in diverse applications. Some mercaptans can be used as precursors for agriculture chemicals or as natural gas additives. While processes for making mercaptans are available, preparing individual mercaptans can be costly due to numerous purification steps required for the feedstock and/or mercaptan product. However, many applications may not require a single pure mercaptan compound, but could utilize mercaptan mixtures. Thus, there is a need to develop mercaptan compositions suitable for such applications, and methods of making same.
One such application is emulsion polymerization. In the past, mercaptans such as n-dodecyl mercaptans (NDDM) and tert-dodecyl mercaptans (TDDM) have been used as chain transfer agents in emulsion polymerization. However, use of these and other mercaptans are sometimes avoided because they can be undesirably odorous. Thus, there is an ongoing need for mercaptans which are more desirable for use as chain transfer agents in emulsion polymerization.